Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine & Spirits
The reserve, a selection of the best barrels given extended aging in wood, shows the tremendous poise that could be achieved in the 2008 vintage. Its earthy scents of forest floor and stem spice are all in the service of plummy, black cherry fruit. The flavors are generous but not demonstrative, the tension between fruit and earth a quiet drama in the wine, finishing with grace.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Pinot Noir Sommers Reserve spent 6 months longer in a higher percentage of new oak than the Jefferson bottling. It exhibits a whiff of toast along with meaty black fruit notes, spice box, and incense. On the palate it displays an elegant personality along with intense fruit flavors, good balance, and enough structure to evolve for 1-2 years. It will deliver prime drinking from 2012 to 2020.
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Wine Spectator
Supple, with a mineral, hot brick undertone to the dark berry and roasted meat flavors. Open-textured finish. Drink now through 2018. 2,058 cases made.
Home of some of the planet’s most amazingly elegant and expressive Pinot noir, the Willamette Valley is a pastoral, mixed landscape of green, bucolic rolling hills, dramatic forestlands and small, independent, friendly wine growers. As a leader in environmental stewardship, the valley has some of the nation’s most protective land use policies, with two-thirds of its vineyards farmed sustainably and over half, organically. While the valley claims a cool, continental climate, and is heavily influenced by the cold, moist winds of the Pacific Ocean, its warm and dry summers allow for the steady, even ripening of Pinot noir.
The potential of Willamette Valley Pinot noir continues to attract the investment of serious growers and winemakers both locally and from abroad, as naturally the finished wines bring accolades from professionals and enthusiasts. With a range of styles from delicate dried cherry, raspberry and hibiscus to stronger notes of truffle, mocha, plum and spice, a fine Willamette Valley Pinot noir is a perfect expression of both character and grace.